Is there such a thing as being too thin? The obvious answer to this question is yes—without enough food and nourishment, a body cannot support itself. Is there such a thing, however, as being too fit? According to many Pinterest posts, the answer to this question may be no.
The social media site Pinterest has recently come under fire for its “thinspiration” posts, images of extremely thin girls that encourage women to continue their eating disorders. Following along that vein are “fitspiration” posts, which motivate women to work out as much as they can. At first glance these images don’t appear to be as harmful as thinspiration ones, but they can be just as detrimental to women’s psyches.
It’s great that women want to be fit and healthy, but there needs to be a clearer distinction between healthy amounts of exercise and unhealthy amounts.
Like many of my girlfriends, I have a Pinterest account. I often come across photos of emaciated women in workout gear with captions such as, “Good things come to those who work their asses off and never give up,” and “No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch.” Because the women in these photos are in exercise clothes, they appear to be healthier than supermodels or other very thin women. But the message some fitspiration images send, however, is the same as in thinspiration posts—push your body to a limit it is not supposed to reach.
That isn’t to say that all fitspiration posts are detrimental. Some women really are inspired to become healthier by motivational quotes and pictures of women with fit bodies. It’s important to recognize, however, that not all fitspiration messages are created equal. Lexie Kite, co-founder of the blog Beauty Redefined, wrote a piece about fitspiration that appeared on the Huffington Post on Sep. 30. She outlined red flags to look for when perusing fitspiration images. These include fitspiration posts that advertise something, fitspiration messages that make you feel bad about yourself and fitspiration statements that diss other body types.
While Pinterest is working hard to block thinspiration messages on its website, it’s still allowing all fitspiration images to be posted without any type of review. The general attitudes online about thinspiration versus fitspiration could not be more different. Thinspiration is seen as negative, while fitspiration is seen as positive. Something needs to be done to bring into awareness how dangerous fitspiration can be. Pinterest can help start this process by noting differences between different types of fitspiration posts.
It’s wonderful that women want to be healthy, and there’s nothing wrong with encouraging them to achieve their health objectives. Websites such as Pinterest, however, have an obligation to ensure that there is a clear line between healthy exercise encouragement and unhealthy exercise encouragement. Otherwise our society is at risk for trading in one type of thinspiration for another.
Photo source: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4s9lc7J2T1rtf9meo1_1280.jpg